Supporters described the measure as a compromise that’s less stringent than what the state required until 2006. They said it would ensure that parents think about an education plan before withdrawing a child from public school. Opponents said it would infringe on parents’ rights and alternately described it as a toothless measure and an intimidating requirement that would scare off would-be home-schooling parents.

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Rep. Eleanor Kjellman said she came to the hearing after getting an e-mail from a home-schooling parents’ network, and she expected to oppose the bill. But Kjellman, who once homeschooled her own children, said that after she read the bill she changed her mind.

“I looked at and I went, ‘Oh, there’s nothing wrong with this bill. I’m not testifying against it,’ ” said Kjellman, a Henniker Democrat.

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The bill would require that the parents’ draft curriculum include topics such as science, spelling and the state constitution. Under current law, those are the topics home schooling is supposed to cover.

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Others argued that the state shouldn’t have authority to intervene between parents and children. Rep. Daniel Itse, a Fremont Republican, said he was “highly disturbed by the view of American government that this law presents.”